Don't shoot me, but:
If Disney hadn't come up with Disney,someone else would have. We may have never seen an individual skillfully combine advances in animation and theme park planning like Uncle Walt did, but the advances would have come eventually.
In the years following World War II, America was ready to take leisure and pleasure time very seriously, and Disneyland was just the thing. If Disney hadn't done it, someone would have built the uber-park in their own way to take people's minds off the "real world."
Disney's legacy is based on the most universal of ideas: fantasy, fun, and just making people feel good. We'd still find outlet for these things in a Disneyless world. I'm not saying I'd like to see it, and I'm not saying the young at heart would have something that scratches the itch as wonderfully as Disney, but we wouldn't be walking around saying "You know, what this world needs is more cartoons about mice and a fun park with a big castle in the middle." Life would be bearable.
[Wilt Dasney steps off soapbox and counts the days left until he returns to Disney World :animwink:]
[and, just to top it off--this post means I am officially Earning My Ears]